


I could learn to love you

by turntechCorvid



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Taako is bad at emotions but he tries, There's also blupjeans but it's only referenced, it's at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 06:31:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12501012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turntechCorvid/pseuds/turntechCorvid
Summary: “I love you.” Those are three words Taako hears often but they aren’t words he usually internalizes. Unfortunately this mindset doesn’t immediately change with Kravitz.





	I could learn to love you

“I love you.” Those are three words Taako hears often but they aren’t words he usually internalizes. Lup says she loves him and he knows she means it because she’s his sister and they’ve been joined at the hip for as long as he could remember. When Angus says he loves him he knows it because Taako means the world to him. But for Magnus? Merle? Barry? He usually brushes it off and changes the conversation to something else, unable to process or fully believe it.

Unfortunately this mindset doesn’t change with Kravitz. Kravitz tells him he loves him more and more, ever since the first time. Says he loves his smile, loves his hair, loves his personality, loves him for him. It isn’t that Taako doesn’t believe he’s loved, if asked he'd say of course he is, rather the impact doesn’t hit him.

He wakes up held in Kravitz’s arms and there’s a moment of quiet bliss before he wakes up fully and checks the time. Pretty soon he’s moving out of Kravitz’s embrace and trying to wake him up as well.

“Krav get up, I know it’s too early in the morning but Angus has school and I’ve way overslept,” he says.

As Kravitz starts to wake up he takes in the situation. “Taako, it’s Sunday, come back to bed.”

Taako checks his phone to be sure, “Nope, it’s Monday.”

Kravitz starts to wake up at that, “Shit. Do you need my help?”

“I gotta wake Angus up so if you’d make him some cereal or something that’d be great.”

At that he leaves and heads to Angus’ room, knocking on the door before heading in. He feels bad about waking him, almost tempted to let him skip. He sits next to him and shakes his shoulder gently.

“C’mon pumpkin, I overslept and we’ve gotta get you to school.”

Angus wakes up slowly but eventually gets up, grabbing his things and making sure he has everything for school. Taako leaves and heads back to the kitchen, fixing some strawberries and a glass of milk. Angus comes in shortly and quickly starts eating.

“Can you get the Caleb Cleaveland novel on my sidetable? I forgot to pack it,” he asks.

Taako goes back and grabs it, noticing the place it’s marked meant he tried to stay up reading it. He makes a note to make sure he gets a little more sleep.

As they’re finally ready to leave Taako says to Kravitz, “If you want to stay here you can or you can come with us and we’ll get brunch after I drop Angus off.”

“Are you sure that’s alright?”

“I’m offering.”

At that Kravitz comes along with them. Taako drops off Angus, not too late thankfully, and gives him a kiss as he leaves.

“So where you thinking about going?” Taako asks.

“Anywhere is fine, you know restaurants the best.”

“In that case there’s a breakfast place Lup and Barry found a couple weeks ago I haven’t been able to try yet. We can do that.”

When they get there they spend a short time waiting before ordering, Taako going for something light while Kravitz went with french toast.

“Sorry about everything this morning, it should go a bit smoother next time you stay over,” Taako says.

“It’s alright if it doesn’t. Sometimes things are just busy.”

“Gods know it. Between managing the restaurant and everything else it’s amazing I find time for anything.”

“How are things going with it by the way?”

“It’s good. The new cook from a few weeks ago is starting to get the hang of things. I’ve got her on desserts right now.”

“Ren right?”

“Yeah. She’s sweet, Ango would probably like her a lot.”

They continue to eat, lapsing into a comfortable silence.

“Could you teach me to cook something sometime?” Kravitz asks.

“Sure, we could make a date out of it if you wanted.”

“I'd like that.”

“Friday works if it’s good with you. That gives me plenty of time to make sure someone can take care of Angus.”

“That’s perfect as long as something with work doesn’t come up.”

“Speaking of we should probably get going soon. I can’t have Avi or Ren chewing me out again over not showing up early enough. Probably a bit late to avoid that though.”

They finish up and leave, driving back to Taako’s.

“Thank you for breakfast, Taako. I enjoyed everything,” Kravitz says.

“It’s no problem, least I could do for bothering you with all this first thing in the morning.”

“See you Friday?”

"See you Friday," he says before pulling Kravitz into a kiss.

“Love you,” Kravitz says when they break away.

“Cut out the sappy shit,” Taako says. His smile betrays the dismissive words.

“I know you like it.”

“I know but don’t tell Lup that, she’d never let me live it down.”

Kravitz gives him another kiss before he leaves. Taako wishes he could stay but he knows they’re both too busy. Instead of dragging it out he lets him go and soon after he heads to work himself. Predictably both Avi and Ren ask him where he’s been though they don’t ask much more once he says he was with Kravitz.

Later he picks up Angus and heads home. Angus works on his homework in the kitchen while Taako makes sweets, planning on bribing Barry to stop telling Angus so much about necromancy. He doesn’t want anything dangerous on his ass, much less his kid’s. It’d be easier if he focused on simpler schools for the time being.

Taako transmutes ingredients as he works, leftover habits from jobs that involved putting on a show. He also may just be trying to impress his tiny audience.

Eventually Angus looks away from his work and asks, “Can you teach me some magic?”

As Taako looks up Angus continues talking, speaking in a rush from nerves, “I see you and Aunt Lup working with it all the time and almost everyone we know works with magic, even Mr. Kravitz, so I was thinking it’d be good to learn.”

“No need to be worried about it, Ango. If you want to learn I think pretty much everyone would be up for teaching you. No learning from Barold though, necromancy gets dangerous quick. Is there anything you want to start with?”

“Anything is fine, I just want to start learning.”

“Well you've got the theory down just from being around me and Lup so I could start you off with mostly basic cantrips. For specific schools of magic you want Lucretia for abjuration and Lup for evocation and of course yours truly for transmutation.”

“I'll ask them later for more about their schools but I'm okay with transmutation.”

“Alright. You want to start today?”

“If that’s okay I’d like to.”

“Hell yes, like I’d pass up the chance to start teaching you magic before anyone else can. Let me finish up with this and we can get started.”

Once Taako is done baking he searches through his closet for his spare wand. Angus seems like an alright match for it though he’ll make sure to buy him a better suited one later. He also grabs a candle for practice.

“So for cantrips I think prestidigitation is a good starting point since you can do a lot with it. If you’ve got anything you’d rather do though long as it’s a cantrip it should be fine,” Taako says.

“Prestidigitation is good.”

Taako shows him the basic hand movements and helps him get the vocal component down. Once he thinks there’s been enough practice he lights the candle. After a few tries he manages to snuff it out and after a few more Taake lets him try it on a bigger flame. When Angus has done enough practice Taako decides it’s best to call it for the night.

“This is looking pretty good so go ahead and get back to the rest of your homework. We can work on it more later or tomorrow if you want,” he says.

“Thank you for teaching me!” Angus says, giving him a hug.

Taako ruffles his hair, smiling. “Yeah, Taako’s fucking amazing,” he says knowing Angus will hear the “you’re welcome” behind it.

Once Angus is finished working they spend the rest of the night relaxing, digging into the novel Angus still hadn’t finished together. Taako goes for the most outlandish and extravagant solutions while Angus is practical in solving. As usual Angus solves the case far better than Taako can though Taako is more aiming to make him laugh above anything else.

When he falls asleep Taako wakes him up and walks him to his room, giving him a quick hug goodnight before he falls right back asleep. He didn’t do great at making sure he got more sleep, they probably ended up staying up as late as he was reading last night.

Taako starts fiddling with his leftover spell slots now that the day is over. He’s comfortable wasting them knowing they’ll be replenished soon. His mind drifts, first to Angus and learning about magic, then later to his date with Kravitz, then to Kravitz himself.

He’ll admit to himself that he’s head over heels for the guy. The thought is a bit nerve-racking but at least Kravitz seems to feel the same way. He’s always trying to do what works for Taako, giving him compliments, doing the sweetest shit, saying he loves him.

Wait. He loves him. He genuinely loves him. As soon as it clicks he’s calling Lup, the fact that it’s the middle of the night be damned.

It takes a minute for Lup to pick up but eventually he hears her. “What’s up, Koko?”

“You know how I’ve been dating Kravitz for a while now?”

“Yeah.”

“He loves me.”

“Is that anything new? You mentioned he’s said it a couple times-”

“No I mean he _loves me_. As in he means it.”

“Oh, shit. How you doing?”

“Pretty fucking amazing.” Lup doesn’t speak in return and he’s sure she’s got an expression that would force him to continue if she was here. “Nervous too.”

“Want me to come over?”

“Not nervous in that way. More like I’m scared I’m gonna fuck this up. I haven’t exactly said it back, not that Krav is the type to hold that against me.”

“Do you want to say it back?”

“Yeah actually. God I’m turning into you.”

“And now you can’t complain about me and Barry anymore.”

“I don’t think I’d have enough time to be like you two, I’ve got Angus to worry about and I don't work with him to make up for the time.”

“You should call him.”

“Maybe.”

“I’m serious, Taako.”

She’s always been good at catching onto when he’s trying to avoid something. “Alright, I’ll call him.”

“Tonight. I know you, you’ll put it off if you don’t call him tonight.”

“Can you pretend to not be so good at reading me for a sec?”

“Sorry, can't stop. Comes with the territory of being a twin.”

“Love you, Lup.”

“Love you too. Call him.”

“I know, I will.”

He doesn’t talk to him about it, somewhat ignoring Lup’s advice. It isn’t for lack of trying, he can never find a good point to bring it up and the words catch in his throat when he can. When Friday comes he finally resolves to talk to him, in large part because he can’t avoid it any longer.

Kravitz arrives with wine while Taako handles getting ingredients for the food. Angus is staying with Magnus, no doubt enjoying the time with him, Julia, and their dogs.

The cooking is slower work than usual, they both slow each other down with kissing and drinking, but eventually they finish up and eat. Taako searches for a movie, finding something terrible so they can make fun of it. Towards the end Taako finally works up the nerve to talk to Kravitz, getting his attention with a kiss.

“Krav, babe,” he says as he continues to kiss him, “I need to talk to you about something. If I don’t Lup is gonna kick my ass.”

“I’m listening.”

Taako considers changing the subject before working up the nerve and finally saying, “I love you. I’m shitty at saying it but I do.”

“I love you too though I’m sure you know it by now.”

“Took me a while to be sure you meant it but I know.”

At that Kravitz kisses him and all thoughts of movies, or anything aside from each other, are gone for the rest of the night.

When Taako wakes up the next morning, Kravitz isn't in bed. He spends a moment wondering if something came up and he had to leave. When he wakes up fully he notices his stuff is still here so he’s probably in the kitchen. He throws on Kravitz’s shirt from last night and heads to where he correctly guessed Kravitz would be.

“Morning,” Kravitz says when he sees Taako. He hums quietly in response, still half-asleep. He hops up onto the counter and watches as Kravitz works, appreciating that he doesn’t have to make anything through his headache.

“Did you make coffee?” Taako asks.

“Not yet.”

“In that case I’m gonna get on that. I’ve got a headache from hell and I only really remember half of last night.”

Taako starts making the coffee, forcing himself through the grogginess and headache. The process helps him wake up as well as the smell. He finishes shortly after Kravitz finishes with the pancakes, adding a lot of cream and sugar to Kravitz’s and just a bit of sugar to his own. They eat in a comfortable silence, aside from praising each other for the food and coffee.

“Taako, you mentioned that you only remembered half of last night. What did you forget exactly?”

“I remember the stuff before we brought out the wine and I remember you making me feel fucking amazing later,” he smiles at Kravitz, flirting and teasing, getting a reward with his blush, “but the stuff in the middle is a bit blurry.”

Taako sees Kravitz go a bit still at that. “Wait, did I say something? Please tell me I didn’t kill the mood.”

Kravitz smiles, “No, nothing like that, quite the opposite. You told me you loved me.”

Immediately Taako is burying his face in his arms, ears twitching in embarrassment. “I’m gonna take a guess and say that I can’t convince you to forget that?”

“No but Taako, if you could I wouldn't want to.”

He sits up again, ears still twitching. “I know but it’s,” he takes a minute to find the right words, “hard to say and uncomfortable. I’m good with emotions when it comes to Lup and Angus, I’m out of my depth here.”

“That’s why it’s good to talk about it. I know you’re scared about messing this up, gods know I feel the same way, but I want to hear how you feel. You don’t have to push yourself but you shouldn't lock everything up either, nor do you have to.”

“When did you get so good at convincing me to drop my bullshit?”

“I’m not sure, though your hangups aren’t just bullshit.”

“You’re too good to me, babe. I did mean it, last night. If you want me to I can try to talk to you about this more. I just need to ask you something, no lying or anything. I’ll get Merle to cast Zone of Truth if I have to.”

“If you want I can cast it myself.”

“Nah, I trust you. Mostly wanted to joke about how he can’t resist that spell. I just want to be sure it isn’t going to bother you if I try to be more open.”

“I promise, I won’t. If anything I think it’ll help in the long term.”

“Alright, good. Now I'm calling off anything more complicated for the rest of the morning. Magnus and Julia can take care of Angus for a bit longer so for now I need a shower and to get back to sleep. And I’m planning on involving you in both of those.”

An hour later they’re both half-asleep and laying in bed. Kravitz is holding Taako. He's curled up and hiding his face in his chest, long still-damp hair tickling both of them. 

“I love you,” Kravitz says quietly.

“I love you too.”

His heart swells with how much he means it.

**Author's Note:**

> i completely re-wrote this thing 3 different times and it absolutely did not want to work in some places but after all the editing im pretty happy with how it turned out


End file.
